MATTANO PARK
5th Street & 5th Avenue, Elizabeth, Union County, NJ

Directions:

From South :

Head north on US 1+9 (north); turn right onto Bayway Cir (HWY 439 east); turn right onto Summer Street; turn right onto 5th Avenue; end Mattano Park.

From North:

New Jersey Turnpike south to exit 13; keep bearing to the right and you end up on Bayway; at the light turn right onto Atlantic Street; turn left onto Fifth Avenue.  Turned left into the park. 

Geology:

nearby flows the Elizabeth River.

History:

1664  --  a group of Englishmen—the Elizabethtown Associators—from eastern Long Island bought land from the Lenape sachem, Mattano.

Facilities:

green fields, ballfields, kids’ playgrounds, and a water spray for children in the summer, lighted tennis courts

Wildlife:

saw two muskrats

Trails:

01/16/2005.  Rosemary, Cefe, dog Sonar and I parked at the 5th Avenue parking area and walked across the open fields to the top of a berm.  I take it that the berm was created to keep the waters of the Elizabeth River from overflowing  into the surrounding residential areas.  There are berms on both sides of the river.  We walked north and crossed over Summer Street (where there is a bridge over the river) and continued up to near the next bridge (Spring Street) where the construction forced us to stop and turn around.   There were quite a few barking dogs along the way, including a cute Jack Russell terrier (same breed as our dog).  Dr. Patrick L. Cooney 

PLANT LIST:
Dr. Patrick L. Cooney, * = blooming on date of the field trip, 01/17/2005.

Trees:
Ailanthus altissima (tree-of-heaven)
Gleditsia triacanthos (honey locust)
Liquidambar styraciflua (sweetgum)
Morus alba (white mulberry)
Pinus strobus (white pine)
Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine)
Platanus x hybrida (London plane)
Quercus palustris (pin oak)
Quercus rubra (red oak)
Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust)

Vines:
xHedera helix (English ivy)
xLonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle)

Herbs:
Artemisia vulgaris (common mugwort)
Daucus carota (Queen Anne's lace)
Glechoma hederacea (gill-over-the-ground)
Oenothera biennis (common evening primrose)
Plantago lanceolata (English plantain)
Polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed)
Potentilla sp. (cinquefoil)
Rumex crispus (curled dock)
Taraxacum officinale (common dandelion) *
Trifolium pratense (red clover)

Grasses:
Phragmites australis (giant reed grass)
Setaria faberi (nodding foxtail grass)
Setaria glauca (yellow foxtail grass)